The legendary 14-time Grammy Award-winner Ricky Skaggs and his band, Kentucky Thunder, are bringing their country sounds and great live show to Campbellsville. Tickets are on sale now for the concert, set for Thursday, December 6, at 7:30 p.m., at Campbellsville University’s Ransdell Chapel, located at 401 N. Hoskins Ave. in Campbellsville.
Skaggs has earned 14 Grammy Awards, 11 International Bluegrass Music Awards, nine Academy of Country Music Awards, eight Country Music Awards, two Dove Awards, three honorary Doctorate Museum’s 2013 Artist-In-Residence and an Americana Music Association Lifetime Achievement Award in the Instrumentalist category along with countless other awards.
Since he began playing music over 50 years ago, Skaggs has released more than 30 albums and has performed thousands of live shows. He started his own record label, Skaggs Family Records. His newest release, Hearts Like Ours, with his wife, celebrated artist Sharon White of The Whites, features the couple duets on handpicked country love songs.
Skaggs, a Grand Ole Opry member, has released his first autobiography, “Kentucky Traveler: My Life in Music.”
Born July 18, 195,4 in Cordell, Ky., Skaggs showed signs of future stardom at an early age, playing mandolin on stage with bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe at age 6 and appearing on TV with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs at 7.
He emerged as a professional bluegrass musician in 1971 when he and his friend Keith Whitley were invited to join the legendary Ralph Stanley’s band, the Clinch Mountain Boys.
Skaggs became a recording artist in his own right in 1981 when his Epic label debut album “Waitin’ for the Sun to Shine” topped the country charts and yielded a pair of number 1 hits. Overall, his productive stay at Epic Records would result in a total of 12 number 1 hits.
General admission tickets for the concert are $35, and special Meet and Greet tickets are $75. The Meet and Greet will take place at 6:30 p.m. in the Banquet Hall. For tickets and information, call the Office of Development at Campbellsville University at 270-789-5211. Tickets can also be purchased online at Campbellsville.edu/rickyskaggs. Proceeds from the concert will benefit the university’s Scholarship Fund.
Campbellsville University is a widely-acclaimed Kentucky-based Christian university with more than 10,000 students offering more than 90 programs of study including Ph.D., master, baccalaureate, associate, pre-professional and certification programs. The university has off-campus centers in Kentucky cities Louisville, Harrodsburg, Somerset, Hodgenville and Liberty with Kentucky instructional sites in Elizabethtown, Owensboro and Summersville, and nationally in Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay, Jacksonville, Fla. and Chicago. The university also has a full complement of online programs. For more information visit .
-by Joan C. McKinney, Director, Office of University Communications
